From the Earth to
the Moon1998 (1998) - Imagine
Entertainment / HBO (HBO)

review by Bill Hunt,
editor of The Digital Bits

Film
Rating: A+
Winner of three 1998 Emmy awards, including Outstanding Miniseries.
From the Earth to the Moon
features a first-rate ensemble cast, and is arguably the best
retelling of the human story behind the Apollo moon missions ever
produced. Thoroughly researched, highly accurate, gripping, and
completely entertaining.

Disc Ratings (Video/Audio/Extras):
A/B+/A+
Superb picture and solid audio quality throughout. And this DVD
release boasts an entire disc dedicated solely to supplementary
materials, accessible via your DVD-player and DVD-ROM drive (on both
PCs AND Macs). This is the new standard by which all future DVD
special editions will be measured.

Overall Rating: A+
Yes, it's pricy at around $100. But you get substance for every
dollar spent on this four disc set. Whether you're a fan of NASA, or
the DVD format, you won't want to miss this collector's set. Buy it
if you can, rent it if you can't. Absolutely a must see.

"Come
and take a trip in my rocket ship, we'll have a lovely afternoon..."

Review

Few events in human history have had such lasting and far-reaching
effects as the Apollo moon missions. A thousand years from now,
people looking back at the 20th century won't remember the Monica
Lewinsky scandal, or the O.J. Simpson trial. They won't remember
Watergate, or Iran Contra. What they will remember, is that in this
century, the human race fought two world wars, and survived them.
They'll remember that we discovered nuclear power, and (hopefully)
survived that too. They'll remember that we invented the computer,
molecular biology, and nanotechnology - all forces which will have
unimaginable effect in shaping our future. And they will remember,
that on a momentous day in July of 1969, a human being first set
foot on another planet... and for one amazing moment, the whole
world looked up in awe and wonder.

No film or television project has quite so effectively captured the
spirit of those heady days, as the Tom Hanks/HBO collaborative
effort, From the Earth to the Moon.
Certainly there have been better documents of the events themselves
- the technical struggles, and the history of the time. But no
program has so closely measured the human testament - the hundreds
of thousands of Americans who made walking on the moon possible, and
the often dramatic effect the effort had on their personal lives.
Based, at least in part, on Andrew Chaikin's impressively
comprehensive book A Man on the Moon,
this series looks at the race to the moon a piece at a time,
separating the period into twelve hour-long episodes. Each episode
has its own director and writer. Each has its own unique style and
feel.

Other than Hanks (who appears in the last episode, and introduces
many of them), there are no major movie stars in From
the Earth to the Moon (although Sally Field does direct
an episode). There is, however, an outstanding (and quite large)
ensemble cast of both television and film actors. You will recognize
scores of the performers here, among them Rita Wilson (the real-life
Mrs. Hanks), Cary Elwes, Mark Harmon, Tim Daly, Elizabeth Perkins,
Chris Isaak, Blythe Danner, Kevin Pollak, Lane Smith, Peter Horton,
Adam Baldwin, Al Franken, Ann Cusack, and Jobeth Williams.

From the Earth to the Moon was
produced with the unparalleled cooperation of NASA itself, and many
of the individuals involved in the actual events participated to
ensure the program's accuracy. Apollo 15 astronaut Dave Scott
actually served as a technical consultant throughout the project,
and was always on set during filming. Some $65 million dollars were
spent on the production, over 3 years, making From
the Earth to the Moon among the most lavish and expensive
mini-series yet produced. And executive producer Tom Hanks brought
the full measure of his intense personal interest in the space
program to bear on the series, directing one episode, starring in
another, and writing (at least in part) four more.

Let me start by saying a few words about the overall quality of
this DVD set. The video presented here is excellent throughout the
series. Shot on film, but produced on video for cable television,
the series features lots of digital video effects, which give some
portions of the program a bit of a digital look. But this is by
design in post production - some new footage has been enhanced
digitally to look like archival film, and lots of actual archival
material (of varying quality) is used here as well. But the MPEG-2
compression is extremely well done. The special effects, including
many completely digital images of the spacecraft and the lunar
surface, look crisp and clear. Color rendition and contrast range
are also excellent, with rich hues and deep blacks visible. The four
disc set also uses a tasteful (and graphically well done) menu
system, that is both visually pleasing and easy to navigate - lots
of eye candy to get you in the appropriate viewing mood.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is quite solid. There is very clear
sound definition, including both dialogue and sound effects, even if
there isn't quite as much use of directional effects as I would have
liked. There is, however, lots of deep, room-filling bass - my
subwoofer got a very thorough workout.

My only complaint with this set, is the packaging. Don't get me
wrong - it looks fantastic. The set comes in a metallic silver slip
case (see the picture above), and is enclosed in an elaborate,
book-like, five-panel custom fold-out case (4 of the panels hold the
discs, and a 5th holds a nicely-done, 14-page booklet). The problem
here is durability. The case is made of stiff paper material
(similar to a Snapper case), but with so many folds, I doubt it will
stand up to extended wear and tear. It also takes fingerprints a bit
easily. Personally, I would have much preferred a variation on the
Amaray keep case, but this is a minor complaint. Note that
individual Snapper cases are being made available to video
retailers, for rental use.

Now... let's talk content. Given that this is a four disc set, and
that there is such an impressive volume of materials to consider
here, I thought the only proper way to do this review, would be to
examine each disc individually. So off we go...

Disc
One of From the Earth to
the Moon, contains the first four episodes of the
series. Following the HBO legal disclaimer screen and the HBO
DVD logo, a nifty animated title graphic plays and then reveals
a main menu screen (which is similar on all of the first three
discs). This main menu allows you to select from the following
options: Play Movie, Parts 1-4, Languages,
and Subtitles. Play Movie starts the first
episode, and the disc will play through all episodes
continuously. The Languages and Subtitles
options are self-explanatory (note that you CAN change these
selections during the program, with the audio and subtitle
buttons on your remote). Parts 1-4 allows you to select
an individual episode.

Upon selecting an episode, you are taken to a sub-menu screen,
which is graphically unique to that particular episode. Each of
these sub-menus allows you to play the episode itself, select
from a list of program chapters, or view that episode's unique
list of cast and crew. The episodes contained on Disc
One are as follows:

Part 1 - Can We Do This?

Directed by Tom Hanks, this first episode starts the series
nicely, beginning with newsreel footage of the first launch of a
human into space - Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. We learn that
the Russians' goal is nothing short of landing a man on the
moon, and the American space program is woefully behind. Soon
however, American astronaut Alan Shepard (played by Ted Levine,
whom you may remember as the serial killer Buffalo Bill, from
Silence of the Lambs),
makes a successful, sub-orbital hop into space. A little more
than a year later, with but a few successful Mercury flights
completed, President Kennedy announces a startling goal -
America must walk on the moon within nine years, and beat the
Russians there at all cost.

The task of doing this, falls upon hard-pressed NASA
administrator James Webb (Dan Lauria - Kevin's father from The
Wonder Years). We are soon made to understand the
sheer audacity and difficulty of the task at hand. And as we
watch the space program develop through Projects Mercury and
Gemini, we are introduced to many of those individuals (both
engineers and astronauts) that will bring Kennedy's vision to
reality, and who will appear throughout the series.

Part 2 - Apollo One

One of my personal favorites, Apollo
One looks at the tragic launch pad fire, which
claimed the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger
Chaffee. NASA is scrambling to launch the first of the Apollo
test flights, and everyone involved has 'moon fever'. In the mad
scramble to meet the tight flight schedule, and given the
complexity of the effort, mistakes are inevitable... and in this
case, fatal. After the accident occurs, NASA personnel and
civilian contractors struggle to come to terms with the
accident, and begin the tedious and unpleasant process of
determining what went wrong.

Three performances impress in this installment: Kevin Pollack
(as Apollo program manager Joe Shea, who grapples with the
belief that, had he been in the capsule for the test as
originally planned, he could have put out the fire), James
Rebhorn (as a North American executive struggling under intense
pressure from NASA to build the Apollo spacecraft quickly), and
Nick Searcy (as Deke Slayton, one of the original Mercury
astronauts, and head of NASA's astronaut office, who must deal
with the loss of his best friend, Grissom).

Part 3 - We Have Cleared the
Tower

With the Apollo spacecraft's technical problems hopefully
resolved, NASA prepares to fly the first manned Apollo mission -
Apollo 7. Assigned to lead the crew on this mission, is Mercury
veteran Wally Schirra (Mark Harmon). There's a tense atmosphere
at NASA, as everyone grapples with lingering fears and doubts
after the tragic fire. And as the astronauts and other personnel
race to ensure that nothing will go wrong on Apollo 7, a TV
documentary crew (led by Peter Horton of TV's thirtysomething)
scrutinizes their every move.

Here we take an interesting look at the personal lives of the
astronauts, particularly Wally Schirra, for whom Apollo 7 will
be his final mission before retiring. We also get to see some
interesting behind-the-scenes stories, including a young nurse
that works closely with the astronauts, and Guenter Wendt, whom
the astronauts refer to as 'the Furher of the launch pad'.

Part 4 - 1968

1968 was an extremely turbulent year on Planet Earth. The
Vietnam War was in full swing, and war protests were breaking
out all across America. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy
were assassinated, and rioting occurred at the Democratic
National Convention in Chicago, further eroding any public sense
of security. But in late December, just as the year appeared a
total loss, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and
William Anders became the first human beings to orbit the moon.
And on Christmas Eve, these three men gave humanity its first
view of the whole Earth from space - a dazzling vision... and a
reason to hope.

This is another of the series' best episodes, full of great
drama. As Apollo 8 slips behind the dark side of the moon, out
of communication range, there's tremendous tension back on
Earth. Will their rocket engine fire, gently nudging the
spacecraft into lunar orbit? Would it work again, less than a
day later, to send them home again? Frank Borman's wife (Rita
Wilson) is prepared for the worst. But as the astronauts round
the dark side, they encounter a stunning sight: Earthrise. Man,
what I'd give to see that....

On
to Disc Two, which
contains the middle four episodes of the series. The menuing
scheme here is identical to the first disc of the set, with only
very minor, cosmetic differences. The main menu screen has very
subtle graphic additions in the background, enhancing the theme
of the building drama of the series. And here you can choose
from Parts 5-8, as follows:

Part 5 - Spider

All right, so Kennedy said we've got to land on the moon. How
exactly do you go about designing, building and testing the
spacecraft that will do it? The pressure's high - the Lunar
Module (LEM) simply must work the first time it flies on Apollo
9, if NASA is to beat the Russians to the moon. But Tom Kelly
and the engineers in the Grumman Engineering Bullpen are just
the guys for the job.

Spider is my
second favorite episode. The screenwriting, acting and direction
here accomplish what I find to be an absolutely amazing feat:
making the mind-numbingly technical subject of spacecraft design
thoroughly entertaining... and even noble. Matt Craven (L.A.
Doctors) is perfect as Tom Kelly, the Grumman
executive who must get the LEM done on time, and then like any
parent, must let it go. And you might recognize Grant Shaud
(Miles Silverberg from Murphy Brown),
Clint Howard (Ron Howard's brother, who appeared in Apollo
13), and Alan Ruck (Cameron from Ferris
Bueller's Day Off) in this episode as well.

Part 6 - Mare Tranquilitatis

This is it. With a mere six months left before Kennedy's end of
the decade deadline, all of the blood, sweat and tears have lead
to this mission - Apollo 11. If all goes well, Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin will become the first human beings to set foot
on another planet, while Michael Collins orbits high above.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, the whole world will stop to watch...

Directed by Frank Marshall, Mare
Tranquilitatis (which gets its name from the
region of the moon on which Apollo 11 landed), looks at the
tensions leading up to the landing, and the breathless attention
given to it by most of the human race. It also examines the very
human emotions of the astronauts themselves - Armstrong (Tony
Goldwyn) seems to have difficulty acknowledging the historic
nature of the mission, while Aldrin (Bryan Cranston) longs to be
the first to walk on the surface.

Part 7 - That's All There Is

Everyone knows the names of the first two men to walk on the
moon, but do you remember who was number three and four? No
matter... at least not to Pete Conrad and Al Bean. They're just
glad to be going in the first place, with their good buddy Dick
Gordon along to mind the spacecraft while they're on the
surface. And while Armstrong and Aldrin only spent a few hours
on the moon, Conrad and Bean will be staying for a while, and
showing folks how to do it in style...

This story of Apollo 12 is, by far, my favorite installment of
the series. A mission for the everyman in all of us, That's
All There Is gives us a chance to see three blue
collar guys, good friends all, experiencing the most amazing
time in their lives. It's surprisingly funny, touching and right
on target. Good old 'Beano' (Dave Foley from News
Radio) even gets to save the day. You can almost
imagine yourself in his shoes. First rate.

Part 8 - We Interrupt This
Program

Most of us have seen Apollo 13,
so we know the story of this near-tragic mission fairly well.
With this in mind, screenwriters Peter Osturland and Amy Brooke
Baker have taken a decidedly different tack to this retelling of
the doomed flight of Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert.

In We Interrupt This Program,
we follow the story of Apollo 13, as told by veteran TV newsman
and space reporter Emmitt Seaborn (Lane Smith from Lois
and Clark, here playing a character based on
real-life journalist Walter Cronkite). Seaborn struggles with a
public that has lost interest in the space program... that is
until something goes wrong. He must also deal with the new blood
at the network - a young, rising-star reporter, who is more
concerned with getting the scoop, than upholding journalistic
integrity.

Disc
Three contains the last four episodes of the series.
As on the second disc, the main menu screen of Disc
Three features subtly added imagery. The episodes
available here, Parts 9-12, are as follows:

Part 9 - For Miles and Miles

Shortly after becoming the first American in space, astronaut
Alan Shepard (Ted Levine) was grounded from active status
because of an inner-ear disorder that caused severe attacks of
vertigo. But after watching crew after crew leave the Earth on
Gemini and Apollo, Shepard decides to risk an experimental ear
surgery that could pave the way for a new mission - a trip to
the moon as commander of Apollo 14.

Part 10 - Galileo Was Right

The goal of Apollo 15 is geology - to gather the best rock
samples from a region of the moon rich and varied in geologic
history. If the astronauts gather the right samples, the result
for scientists will be nothing short of a look back into the
very history of the moon itself. Astronauts Dave Scott (Brett
Cullen, whom you may recognize from Apollo
13) and Jim Irwin will even have a lunar rover to
haul the rocks back to the LEM. But time on the surface will be
critical, and the astronauts are... well, astronauts. They know
nothing about geology, and couldn't tell one rock from another.
Enter Farouk El-Baz and Lee Silver (David Clennon - Miles
Drentell of thirtysomething),
a pair of eclectic scientists who must whip the astronauts into
shape... and make them into world-class rock hunters.

Part 11 - The Original Wives Club

Sally Field directs this installment of the series, which
follows the unsung heroism of the wives of the Apollo
astronauts. The demands of having to maintain a brave face for
the cameras, placed tremendous strain on their lives and their
marriages. And with every mission, came the risk and unspoken
dread of another accident. Rita Wilson, Wendy Crewson, Elizabeth
Perkins and Ann Cusack star, and Tom Hanks co-writes.

Part 12 - Le Voyage Dans La Lune

All of NASA's hopes for the future (more moon missions, a lunar
base, a manned mission to Mars) were dashed when Congress
decided to pull the plug on its support and funding. Apollo 17
would be the last flight to the moon for the foreseeable future.

In this final, stirring installment of From
the Earth to the Moon, writer Tom Hanks tells a tale
to keep the vision alive. As astronaut Gene Cernan takes
mankind's last step on the lunar surface, we learn of the
extraordinary efforts of visionary filmmaker George Melies. It
was Melies, in 1902, who first brought to life for audiences,
the story of mankind's greatest adventure... the story of a trip
from the Earth to the moon.

Disc
Four is completely unique in the collection. With all
of the program material contained on the first three discs, this
disc is comprised entirely of supplemental material. In fact,
the purpose of Disc Four,
is to contain a veritable encyclopedia of information on space
and spaceflight.

Upon inserting the disc in your DVD player, you see the same
HBO disclaimer screen and title animation. What follows is a
new, unique animated menu screen, in the 'road signs in outer
space' theme. Unlike the program discs, footage from the series
plays in the background of the menu here, along with the series
theme music. Several choices are available, the first of which
is Mission Control.

Mission Control allows you to play an excellent, 30
minute HBO "First Look" Featurette. Filled
with interviews and behind-the-scenes information, this
featurette gives us a sense of the tremendous efforts undertaken
to recreate the Apollo missions. For example, that lunar module
seen in Spider,
and on the surface of the moon? It's real - the refurbished LEM
that was to have flown on Apollo 18. To recreate the 1/6 gravity
of the moon, actors were harnessed to giant helium balloons,
adding just the right amount of bounce to their step. "We're
trying to show viewers things they've never seen," says
executive producer Tom Hanks. You definitely get a sense of
Hanks' enthusiasm for the subject - he's a BIG fan of the space
program (I can relate).

This section also allows you to view a much more brief Special
Effects Featurette, which gives viewers a look at the making
of the 600 plus effects shots in From
the Earth to the Moon.

Launch Pad lets you view the twelve Trailers
done for the series. Some relate to particular episodes, others
are just generic promos for the series, but all are worth
looking at. My favorite is the first... Destination
Moon (I'm having a hard time getting that song, and
the series theme, out of my head).

Choosing DVD Credits from the main menu gives you
exactly what you'd expect - a few pages listing the various
facilities who collaborated on the DVD series, including
EMA
Multimedia.

By far the biggest section, however, is the Command Center.
Here, you'll find a Virtual Tour of the Solar System (so
accurately researched, that even the rotational speeds shown are
correctly), 3D Models of the Spacecraft (including the
LEM, Command Module and the Saturn V, which can be viewed close
up, rotated and even examined as wire frames), Mission
Objectives (including NASA's charter mission statement, and
objectives for each Apollo flight), Kennedy's Speech
(the most significant text portions of the speech that started
it all), a Timeline of the Conquest (showing the history
of the space race, with mission by mission highlights, including
both Russian and American programs), and a History of the
Moon (detailing the history of man's fascination with the
moon, moon lore, and more).

Finally, Command Center allows you to enter The ROM
Side of the Moon - a special section of features accessible
via DVD-ROM drives only. Rather than requiring the installation
of custom software, the ROM features of this DVD have been
created in HTML, for use with Netscape Navigator and Internet
Explorer. This allows access to content by both PCs and Macs - a
friendly feature indeed. It's also been designed to work well on
the widest array of computer systems.

Here's a hint - the only Easter Egg to be hidden on
From the Earth to the Moon,
can be found by clicking on the countdown numbers, just after
you launch The ROM Side of the Moon - a tribute to a
fallen hero.

Among the features found on the ROM Side, are the full
text of Kennedy's Speech (including a brief audio clip),
pages of information on the Future of Space Travel
(including future projects and missions), information on Famous
Astronomers, Web Links to sites with space
information (NASA, etc...), Out of this Solar System
(with information on black holes, pulsars and other far-flung
phenomena), Panoramic QuickTime VR (of the Command
Module and LEM cockpits, the lunar rover, the LEM exterior and
the moon's surface), and a link to HBO's Docking Station,
an on-line web site that supplements the content on the ROM, and
which will be continuously updated with new information on the
space program.

"...kiss
the world good-bye, and away we'll fly... Destination Moon!"

Bottom
line

Are you starting to get the idea that there's a LOT of content
here? From the Earth to the Moon
is just about as impressive a DVD collector's set as one could hope
for. The series itself is first-rate, highly entertaining, and is
presented here in superb video and audio quality. The overall
presentation is a blast - there's lots of eye candy to really get
you in the mood. And the extras are nothing short of
ground-breaking. There's enough additional material on the last disc
to wrestle with for hours, both on your regular DVD player, and your
DVD-ROM drive (if you have one). Best of all, the links to HBO's
Docking Station, with it's additional on-line content,
allow more extras to be continually added, increasing the program's
value. For DVD fans and NASA buffs alike, this set is simply not to
be missed.